Remote networked services for providing contextual game guidance based on a user objective

ABSTRACT

Computer-implemented systems and methods for providing contextual game guidance are described herein. An example method includes determining based on contextual information regarding an application an objective of the user; automatically deriving based on the contextual information and the objective contextual guidance to assist the user; generating a user interface having the contextual guidance; and transmitting the user interface to a client device.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/653,462, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,338,210, filed on Oct. 15, 2019, whichclaims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/748,988, filedon Oct. 22, 2018, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference intheir entirety, including all references and appendices cited therein.

FIELD

The present technology relates generally to remote networked gameservices, and more particularly to providing users with game guidancebased on in-game context.

BACKGROUND

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are notnecessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued.Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that anyof the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merelyby virtue of their inclusion in this section.

Video games are getting more complex, while the time allotted to playthem is more limited than ever. Players want to stay engaged andimmersed in the video games that they play, from start to finish.However, these players often have questions about the game that they areplaying, and to get answers to these questions, they have to leave thegame and engage with third party sites. This is because in-game statesand video game activities are not aggregated and analyzed across videogames and video game players. It would be a colossal amount of work fora game developer to implement all the features necessary to provide theplayer help with the game and to reduce player frustration within thecontext of a single game. Therefore, a data model and developer-friendlyAPI is needed to support multiple players and gaming environments acrossa uniform data platform.

Moreover, players (users) can get stuck on games when they are unable tocomplete their immediate objective, which can lead to frustration andeventual churn from the game, and potentially, from the game platform aswell. Traditionally, players may search for text and video walkthroughsthough online websites, but this process has several pain points. Inparticular, searching online requires a player to put down the gamecontroller to switch to another device, such as a phone, tablet, orlaptop, and it requires multi-tasking between at least two screens(e.g., the video game on a TV screen and information associated with thevideo game on another screen). Moreover, it is not always obvious to theplayer what to search. Searching online for answers also requires theplayer to scan the resulting guide for the specific help that the playerneeds (which may be buried in a longer walkthrough or video), and itposes the risk of exposing the player to spoilers. Online results may bepoorly written, inaccurate, out-of-date, or not relevant to the player'sspecific inquiry or in-game situation. Conventionally, help is notalways easily available for brand new games, or for much older games orniche games, and help guides do not always have the same context as theplayer with respect to character builds, stats, weapons, loadout, ordifficulty setting. Unfortunately, the player spends increasing amountsof time searching online for answers, instead of playing the game.

Thus, there is a long-felt need for an always-available, on-demand,spoiler-free system that provides highly contextual hints, guidance andsolutions based on the player's specific in-game situation, to allow theplayer to quickly and painlessly try out better approaches and makeprogress in the game.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described in the Detailed Descriptionbelow. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

Generally, the present disclosure refers to a remote networked servicefor providing contextual game guidance. The remote networked service maybe referred herein as a “help service” or a “help system,” which is analternative to traditional Internet searching for walkthroughs andvideos, and provides real-time guidance. The guidance is based onuser-specific information, such as the player's current activity,character build and statistics, inventory, abilities or moves, etc., orstatistical analysis of the user relative to other users. As will beshown, the remote networked service simplifies and improves the processof getting help when stuck on a game, to reduce player churn andincrease player playtime, satisfaction, and retention.

According to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the userrequests help with a game via a client device, such as a game console,personal computer, mobile device, etc., at various entry points orchannels. Entry points may include a quick menu, game hub, voiceinterface, or other remote networked service. It is to be understoodthat the user may request help regardless whether or not the game isbeing played.

The remote networked service provides guidance based on in-game context.In various embodiments, the remote networked service has access to auniform data system that provides a methodology for game clients andgame servers to send data to the platform without requiring per-featureor per-service integration. The remote networked service has access tocontextual information related to each game application for each user,including: any progression and activities, including names,descriptions, and statuses associated with each activity, and telemetryregarding start and end timestamps for an activity, estimated playtime,in-game location, and rewards; any actions and outcomes, including aninitiator, a timestamp, and a location associated with each action andan impacted entity, a timestamp, a location, and a related actionassociated with each outcome; any zones and locations, including names,descriptions, virtual coordinates, and events associated with each zoneand location; any characters and attributes, including characterstatistics, inventory, abilities, and telemetry regarding changes tocharacter statistics, inventory, and abilities; any choices andbranches, including dialog, path, options for each branching situation,and telemetry regarding a user encountering a particular branch andwhich option the user selected. Thus, the remote networked services ofthe present disclosure may provide guidance for each user for each gameavailable based on user-specific, real-time, and in-game context.

According to another example embodiment of the present disclosure, theremote networked service determines, based on the contextualinformation, an objective for which the user needs guidance, and derivesthe guidance based on the contextual information and the objective.Examples of objectives include location-based objectives, such asfinding an item, character, or place to progress to the next checkpoint;puzzle-based objectives, such as solving an in-game puzzle or breaking acode; objectives requiring tactical knowledge, such as knowing whichin-game mechanism (e.g., moves, abilities, items, weapons, etc.) toutilize to successfully complete the objective; and objectives requiringmechanical knowledge, such as how best to execute an in-game mechanism(e.g., aiming, timing, positioning, etc.) to successfully complete theobjective.

In general, the remote networked service may provide guidance based onthe user's current activity, which may include a level, quest, trophy,multiplayer mode, etc. In addition, as will be discussed in greaterdetail below, the remote networked service may provide guidance based onany contextual information, and any combination of contextualinformation, accessible to the service—such as through the uniform datasystem.

In various embodiments, the remote networked service determines that theuser requires location-based guidance to complete the user's currentobjective. For example, the remote networked service may determine thatthe user's current activity involves acquiring an item, interacting witha character, interacting with an object, or finding a place. Inresponse, the remote networked service derives guidance indicating thelocation that the user needs to go to make progress in the currentactivity. The location may be based on statistical analysis of the userrelative to other users completing the current activity with the same,or close to the same, character statistics, equipment, and skill.

In other embodiments, the remote networked service determines the userrequires tactical guidance to complete their current objective. Forexample, the remote networked service determines, based on thecontextual information, that the user is fighting an enemy that requiresa particular in-game mechanism to be used to defeat that enemy. Theguidance indicates the use of a particular game mechanism to increasethe chance of success. The guidance may include the use of a particularability or move (e.g., dodge, counter, attack, sprint), which may bepotentially related to another entity's ability or move, such as dodgingan enemy's attack. In another example, the guidance may include the useof a particular weapon, weapon-type, ammo-type, item, character,vehicle, damage-type, etc. In a further example, the guidance includesthe recommendation of reaching a particular character level, statistic(stat), or strategy. The guidance may be based on statistical analysisof the user relative to other users who have completed the currentactivity with the same, or close to the same, character statistics,equipment, and skill.

In some embodiments, the remote networked service determines the userrequires mechanical guidance to complete the user's current objective.For example, the remote networked service determines, based on thecontextual information, that the user is fighting a boss enemy. Theguidance indicates the best execution of a particular game mechanism toincrease the chances of success, based on statistical analysis of theuser relative to other users completing the current activity with thesame, or close to the same, character statistics, equipment, and skill.For example, the guidance may include positional information, such asthe best distance to maintain from an enemy; the best distance tomaintain from an enemy when using a particular ability, move, weapon,weapon-type, or ammo type; best in-game locations at which to bepositioned; or the best routes to take through the in-game world. Inanother example, the guidance may include timing information, such asthe best timing of actions, abilities, or moves (which may or may not berelative to the timing of an enemy's move, for example), or the besttiming of a first attack, first kill, or crossing of some otherthreshold. Other examples include the best speed or movement patterns touse, the best locations on an enemy to attack, and the best amount of anability to use (e.g., whether to shoot in short bursts or brake around acorner while driving), etc.

It is to be understood that the various forms of guidance are notmutually exclusive. The remote networked service may provide one or moreforms of guidance for any given context, as will be shown and describedherein.

According to an aspect of embodiments disclosed herein, the remotenetworked service generates a user interface that provides users withthe contextual guidance. Alternatively, the client device or a separateserver may generate the user interface. For example, the client devicerunning a game may generate the user interface providing the contextualguidance for the game. Alternatively or conjunctively, a separatedevice, such as a mobile device, may generate the user interface. Theguidance may be in the form of text, image, video, audio, or acombination thereof. In certain embodiments, the remote networkedservice skips to a particular time stamp in a provided video, the timestamp being associated with the in-game context. For example, if a useris on the fifth level of a game, the remote networked service maypresent a video walkthrough of the game and automatically skip to a timestamp associated with the beginning of the fifth level, or someparticular part of the fifth level at which the user is currentlyplaying.

The remote networked service may determine an amount of guidance (e.g. ahint, a tip, an explicit video, etc.) to provide the user based on userpreference, history of guidance provided to the user, or other suitableinformation.

The user interface may be presented via a number of client devices, suchas a personal computer (PC), tablet PC, game console, gaming device,set-top box (STB), television device, cellular telephone, portable musicplayer (e.g., a portable hard drive audio device), web appliance, or anymachine capable of presenting the user interface. The user interface maybe presented as part of a quick menu, game hub, other remote networkedservice, or audio interface.

According to a further example embodiment of the present disclosure, theuser interface is updated in real-time. This allows the player keep theguidance “live” during gameplay. The remote networked serviceautomatically refreshes content presented via the user interface basedon real-time updates to user context and activity. This includesallowing the user to play the game while simultaneously watching a helpvideo (either on a separate device or in a snap mode), with the videoautomatically pausing when it shows the necessary help clip, and thenresuming when the user progresses to the next objective to show help forthat objective.

The user interface may sort the guidance by likelihood to increase theuser's chance of success. The order by which guidance is presented maybe based on applied positive and negative weights, which are based on:help sourced from at least one user with a different skill level or sameskill level; help sourced from at least one user with a differentdifficulty setting or same difficulty setting; help sourced from atleast one user with different character statistics or equipment or samecharacter statistics or equipment; source of help (e.g., users ordevelopers); developer vote; user feedback; user success rate and speedof success after consuming guidance; video creator tags; or presence ofoffensive content.

According to an even further example embodiment of the presentdisclosure, the remote networked service may request users to publishuser generated content (UGC) to be used as guidance. For example, for aparticular in-game activity that the service does not have enoughapplicable help videos or content, the remote networked service may senda request to users that have successfully completed the in-game activityto publish a video of their gameplay.

In particular, the remote networked service may detect an event metadatathat a particular user completed the in-game activity. In response todetecting the event metadata, the service may request the user to sharea recording of the play session. In certain embodiments, the user mayopt in and allow the remote networked service to associate videos withevent and activity metadata and provide the videos to other users asguidance. The remote networked service may track a number of views orfeedback for each video, and in some embodiments provide a reward to theuser who generated the video based on a predetermined threshold of viewsor feedback. In other embodiments, the remote networked service mayrequest and receive feedback from the user as to whether or not providedguidance was helpful.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings, in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system architecture for providing users withcontextual information regarding available game activities, according toone example embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates another exemplary system architecture, according toone example embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary system for providing a data model for auniform data platform, according to one example embodiment.

FIG. 4 a shows an exemplary user interface, according to one exampleembodiment.

FIG. 4 b illustrates another exemplary user interface, according to oneexample embodiment.

FIG. 5 depicts a further exemplary user interface, according to oneexample embodiment.

FIG. 6 depicts a flow diagram of a method for providing users withcontextual information regarding available game activities.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic representation of an example machine in theform of a computer system within which a set of instructions for themachine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed hereinis executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description includes references to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the detailed description.The drawings show illustrations in accordance with example embodiments.These example embodiments, which are also referred to herein as“examples,” are described in enough detail to enable those skilled inthe art to practice the present subject matter. The embodiments can becombined, other embodiments can be utilized, or structural, logical, andelectrical changes can be made without departing from the scope of whatis claimed. The following detailed description is therefore not to betaken in a limiting sense, and the scope is defined by the appendedclaims and their equivalents.

In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure are directedto providing users with guidance based on user-specific, real-time,in-game context.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary system architecture 100 for providing users withcontextual information regarding available game activities, according toone example embodiment. In some embodiments, the exemplary systemarchitecture 100 includes a game client 105, a uniform data system (UDS)software development kit (SDK) 110, console system software 115, a localrule engine 120, a UDS server 125, a game server 130, processed data135, and one or more other remote networked services, including a helpservice 140, game plan 145, user generated content (UGC) tagging 150,and other service(s) 155. The help service 140 may also receiveinformation from other data source(s) 160.

The game client 105 and game server 130 provide contextual informationregarding a plurality of applications to a uniform data system (UDS)server 125 via a UDS data model describing the logical structure of UDSdata used by the UDS SDK 110. The UDS data model enables the platform torealize remote networked services, such as the help service 140, gameplan 145, UGC tagging 150, and other service(s) 155 that require gamedata, without requiring each game to be patched separately to supporteach service. The UDS data model assigns contextual information to eachportion of information in a unified way across games. The contextualinformation from the game client 105 and UDS SDK 110 is provided to theUDS server 125 via the console system software 115. It is to beunderstood that the game client 105, UDS SDK 110, console systemsoftware 115, and local rule engine 120 may run on a computer or othersuitable hardware for executing a plurality of applications.

The UDS server 125 receives and stores contextual information from thegame client 105 and game server 130 from a plurality of applications. Tobe sure, the UDS server 125 may receive contextual information from aplurality of game clients and game servers for multiple users. Theinformation may be uniformly processed (i.e. processed data 135) andthen received by the plurality of remote networked services 140, 145,150, and 155.

FIG. 2 shows another exemplary embodiment of a system architectureaccording to the present disclosure. A game client 205 sends contextualinformation to a UDS server 210, which provides the contextualinformation in a unified data model to a plurality of remote networkedservices, including profile stats 215, game plan 220, sessions 225,tournaments 230, presence 235, and help system 240.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary system for providing data model for auniform data system 300, according to an example embodiment of thedisclosure. In one example embodiment, system 300 can include at leastone device 330 configured to execute at least one of a plurality ofapplications 332, each application having an application data structure.A uniform data platform 310 can be executed on one or more servers. Theuniform data platform 310 can include a data model which is uniformacross the plurality of application data structures. The data model caninclude metadata 312 corresponding to at least one object indicated inthe data model, and events 314 corresponding to a trigger conditionassociated with at least one metadata entry. The values of the metadata312 and events 314 can be associated with a user profile. The uniformdata platform 310 can be configured to receive application data from theat least one device 330 and store the application data within the datamodel. The system 300 can also include a plurality of remote networkedservices 320 configured to access the application data from the uniformdata platform 310 using the data model.

In various embodiments, the metadata 312 may include: a list of allactivities that a user can do in an application, an activity name, adescription of the activity, a state of the activity (whether available,started, or completed), whether the activity is required to complete anobjective or campaign, a completion reward for the activity, an intro oroutro cutscene, an in-game location, one or more conditions that must bemet before the activity becomes available, and a parent activity thatcontains the activity as a sub-activity. Metadata 312 may furtherinclude: a list of abilities exercisable by the user, effects of eachaction, telemetry indicative of when actions and effects take placeincluding corresponding timestamps and locations, an in-game coordinatesystem, a list of in-game branch situations, and telemetry indicative ofwhen a branch situation is encountered and which option is selected bythe user. A list of in-game statistics, items, lore, in-game zones andcorresponding attributes regarding each statistic, item, lore, or zonemay likewise be included in the metadata 312. In addition, the metadata312 may indicate whether or not a particular activity, entity (such as acharacter, item, ability, etc.), setting, outcome, action, effect,location, or attribute should be marked as hidden.

Events 314 may be fired in response to several various triggerconditions. For example, such trigger conditions may include: anactivity that was previously unavailable becomes available, a userstarts an activity, a user ends an activity, an opening or endingcutscene for an activity begins or ends, the user's in-game location orzone changes, an in-game statistic changes, an item or lore is acquired,an action is performed, an effect occurs, the user interacts with acharacter, item, or other in-game entity, and an activity, entity,setting, outcome, action, effect, location, or attribute is discovered.The events 314 may include further information regarding a state of theapplication when the events 314 were triggered, for example a timestamp,a difficulty setting and character statistics at the time a user startsor ends an activity, success or failure of an activity, or a score orduration of time associated with a completed activity.

FIGS. 4 a-4 b illustrate exemplary user interfaces 400 a, 400 b for aremote networked service for providing contextual game guidance,according to the present disclosure. FIG. 4 a depicts a user interface400 a that illustrates a screenshot from a game application being playedby a user via a client device. In this example, the player character isfighting an enemy (i.e., Sawtooth), using a particular set of equipment(i.e., a green hunting bow and fire arrows). The client device mayautomatically send updates in real-time regarding the current activityand character information to the remote networked service, UDS server,or other suitable intermediary. For example, the current activity (i.e.,“The point of the spear” quest having the objective, “Kill theSawtooth”) is displayed on the user interface 400 a.

FIG. 4 b shows an overlaid user interface 400 b having contextual gameguidance. In response to receiving a request for guidance from the user,the remote networked service generates a user interface 400 b includingcontext sensitive guidance and transmits the user interface 400 b to theclient device. Alternatively, the client device may generate the userinterface 400 b. The user interface 400 b includes an indicator 405 thatthe remote networked system determined the activity currently engaged bythe user (i.e., fighting a Sawtooth). The user interface 400 b displaysone or more cards 410, 415, 420 having relevant guidance information forthe user's present objective. The remote networked service may determinethat a particular use of a weapon, a particular mechanic or a type ofammunition (ammo) (e.g., the “ropecaster” shown in card 410 or landingcritical strikes with fire arrows shown in card 420), statisticallyincreases the chances of user success at defeating the Sawtooth. Theuser interface 400 b displays the cards 410, 420 to the user, which maybe selectable by the user to show more text or videos regarding theguidance. Selecting card 410 may cause the user interface 400 b to showa video on how to best use the ropecaster.

Likewise, the remote networked service may offer text and videosuggestions on how other players have successfully accomplished theobjective. For example, the remote networked service may have previouslydetermined that a second user successfully defeated the Sawtooth andused an in-game mechanism such as dodging to avoid a lunge attach of theSawtooth. This may be represented in the UDS data model as an eventaction performed by the user which successfully avoided a lunge actionby the Sawtooth enemy, actions which have associated time stamps. Here,the remote networked service may provide a video of the second userfighting the Sawtooth in card 415, and may time skip to a moment beforethe dodge action was executed.

Furthermore, in response to the user interacting with an in-game entityand receiving a request for guidance from the user, the remote networkedservice may provide, via user interface 400 b, any collected lore orother discovered game objects that pertain to the in-game entity. In oneor more embodiments, the discovered information presented to the user isdistinguished from other contextual guidance.

It is to be understood that, while the guidance is described as beingpresented by “cards,” any form of text, image, video, audio or othersuitable media or graphic user interface may be used to display andorganize the contextual game guidance.

FIG. 5 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of user interfaces 500a, 500 b of the present disclosure. In particular, user interfaces 500a, 500 b depict further examples of contextual game guidance that may bepresented to the user. Guidance 505, 510, 515, and 520 providesinformation to the user based on in-game context, present or past.

In a first exemplary user interface 500 a, guidance regarding a racinggame is presented. The UDS server may store user metadata regarding arace in a racing game, such as the car model the user selected, and thevirtual location the user performed the brake action before the fourthturn of the circuit. The remote networked service, based on the UDSdata, may determine statistics across users regarding particular races,car models, and levels of success, and present that information to theuser. For example, if the user finished a race using the Audi A4 RS onthe Sunrise Harbour track, the user interface 500 may inform the uservia guidance 505 that 85% of players who drive the Audi A4 RS on SunriseHarbour brake earlier into the fourth turn. If the user finished a raceon the Fraser Valley track, the user interface 500 may include aguidance 510 suggesting the use of a different vehicle such as theFerrari LaFerrari, which statistically has set the fastest lap time. Itis to be understood that each piece of contextual guidance may have oneor more associated conditions that must be met by a present contextbefore being sent for display to the user.

In a second exemplary user interface 500 b, guidance regarding a firstor third person shooter is presented. Here, the remote networked servicemay count the occurrence of an event on the client device or the serverand provide guidance in response to the count exceeding a predeterminedthreshold. For example, the remote networked service determines that theuser has been killed by the enemy “Big Grunt” thirteen times while theuser has been using a rifle, and presents mechanical-based assistance onhow other players have defeated the enemy using the equipped weapon.Based on the UDS data across multiple users, the remote networkedservice determined that 65% of players using the rifle defeated theenemy with a headshot from a statistically-averaged distance.Additionally, the remote networked service may record a start time foran activity and check an elapsed amount of time the user has beenattempting to complete the activity. In response to the elapsed amountof time exceeding a predetermined amount of time, the remote networkedservice may provide guidance associated with the activity. The guidance515 is then presented to the user. The remote networked service maydetermine which players perform best, and present particular statisticsregarding those top players and their tactics to the user. For example,guidance 520 informs the user that a particularly talented player getsmost kills while in cover mode during combat.

If contextual guidance is not available when the user requests help, theuser interface may include a notification that guidance is notavailable. For example, guidance may not be supported for a portion of agame or the game that the user is playing, or guidance might not existfor the section or context of the game the user is currently requestinghelp. The notification may include an explanation of why there is noprovided contextual guidance.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, theremote networked service may provide a developer-facing web tool as auser interface to allow developers to monitor data-based tips and videosbeing surfaced by the system for each in-game activity. The userinterface may include a list of in-game activities, and, for eachactivity, a list of the data-based tips and videos that would beprovided to users if a request for guidance was sent regarding thatactivity. The list of data-based tips may be sorted by a determinedconfidence in the overall validity of the tip. The developer may up-voteor down-vote specific tips or videos using the user interface toinfluence the ranking of the tips or video in the results. Likewise, thedeveloper may mark a tip or video for removal from the set of contextualguidance to be provided to users. The remote networked service mayadditionally receive requests from developers via the user interface.

The user interface may also allow the developer to provide guidance tobe sent to the user upon a request for guidance for a particularactivity. To facilitate, the user interface may provide the developerwith a system tip template, including controls to specify whether or nota tip is applicable in a particular game, and to specify how the tipshould be presented to users in the context of the game. In particular,the developer can include personalized tips and set what metadataconditions must be met by a determined context of the game before thetip is shown to the user. The template may include data-derived segmentspulled from UDS data regarding the game, such as a list of applicableweapons or abilities available in a game.

Occasionally, a game patch or update can change the balance of weapons,characters, and abilities in a game, and thus change the effectivenessor applicability of certain guidance content. While the substance of thecontextual guidance system may not necessarily be affected by such agame patch, the developer facing user interface may include a controlfor each tip template indicative of whether a subset of tips need to beupdated or reset due to the particular game patch.

Each tip or piece of guidance may be associated with a help contentidentifier. A game engine may indicate via updating metadata or eventinformation at the UDS server that the guidance associated with a helpcontent identifier has been presented to the user in-game. The remotenetworked service, before sending contextual guidance information, maycheck to see whether the contextual guidance information has alreadybeen shown to the user based on the updated metadata and identifierinformation. In response to determining that the contextual guidanceinformation has already been shown, the remote networked service mayprovide other, new contextual guidance instead.

FIG. 6 is a process flow diagram showing a method 600 for providing agame plan remote networked service, according to an example embodiment.Method 600 can be performed by processing logic that includes hardware(e.g., decision-making logic, dedicated logic, programmable logic,application-specific integrated circuit), software (such as software runon a general-purpose computer system or a dedicated machine), or acombination of both. In example embodiments, the processing logic refersto one or more elements of the system architecture 100 and 200 of FIGS.1 and 2 . Operations of method 600 recited below can be implemented inan order different than the order described and shown in the figure.Moreover, method 600 may have additional operations not shown herein,but which can be evident from the disclosure to those skilled in theart. Method 600 may also have fewer operations than shown in FIG. 6 anddescribed below.

Method 600 commences at block 610 with determining, based on contextualinformation regarding an application, an objective of the user.Optionally, the method 600 may commence with receiving a user requestfor guidance from a client device. The contextual information may bereceived and updated in real-time while the application is beingexecuted.

In block 620, the method 600 may include deriving, based on thecontextual information and the objective, contextual guidance to assistthe user. The contextual guidance may be based on statistical analysisof the user relative to other users that have completed the objectivewith one or more of the same character statistics, equipment, or skillas the user. The contextual guidance may be based on a level of guidanceto provide to the user, the determination of the level provided based onhow much guidance the user may need or desire.

In block 630, the method 600 may include generating a user interfacehaving the contextual guidance. The contextual guidance may includetext, images, videos, audio, or other suitable media. Videos presentedvia the user interface may include a starting time stamp at which tobegin play of the video, wherein the method may further comprisedetermining the time stamp as associated with the current objective.

The contextual guidance may be sorted by a likelihood to increase theuser's chances of successfully completing the objective. The sorting mayuse weights based on one or more of: data sourced from users withdifferent skill level or same skill level; data sourced from users witha different difficulty setting or same difficulty setting; data sourcedfrom users with different character statistics or equipment or samecharacter statistics or equipment; source of data; developer vote; userfeedback; user success rate and speed of success after consumingguidance. Data sourced from users with similar skill, settings, andcharacter attributes will be more likely to help the present useraccomplish his or her objective than data sourced from users withdifferent context, and may be presented with a higher priority in thesorting. Thus, the weighted sorting increases the efficiency ofproviding the user with the contextual guidance.

Optionally, the method 600 may include transmitting the user interfaceto a client device. In certain embodiments, the user interface isupdated in real time based on the present in-game context of the runningapplication. The user interface may be transmitted to the same clientdevice that is executing the application, or a separate client device.The user interface may then be presented to the user so that the usermay receive highly customized and personalized guidance to theirspecific in-game situation and need.

FIG. 7 shows a diagrammatic representation of a computing device for amachine in the example electronic form of a computer system 700, withinwhich a set of instructions for causing the machine to perform any oneor more of the methodologies discussed herein can be executed. Inexample embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device, or canbe connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine can operate in the capacity of a server, aclient machine in a server-client network environment, or as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. Themachine can be a personal computer (PC), tablet PC, game console, gamingdevice, set-top box (STB), television device, cellular telephone,portable music player (e.g., a portable hard drive audio device), webappliance, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions(sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by thatmachine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term“machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines thatseparately or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructionsto perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.Computer system 700 can be an instance of at least a console (see e.g.FIG. 1 ), game server 130, or UDS server 125, for example.

The example computer system 700 includes a processor or multipleprocessors 705 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both), and a main memory 710 and a staticmemory 715, which communicate with each other via a bus 720. Thecomputer system 700 can further include a video display unit 725 (e.g.,a Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD)). The computer system 700 also includesat least one input device 730, such as an alphanumeric input device(e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device (e.g., a mouse), amicrophone, a digital camera, a video camera, and so forth. The computersystem 700 also includes a disk drive unit 735, a signal generationdevice 740 (e.g., a speaker), and a network interface device 745.

The drive unit 735 (also referred to as the disk drive unit 735)includes a machine-readable medium 750 (also referred to as acomputer-readable medium 750), which stores one or more sets ofinstructions and data structures (e.g., instructions 755) embodying orutilized by any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein. The instructions 755 can also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 710 and/or within the processor(s) 705during execution thereof by the computer system 700. The main memory 710and the processor(s) 705 also constitute machine-readable media.

The instructions 755 can be further transmitted or received over acommunications network 760 via the network interface device 745utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g.,Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), CAN, Serial, and Modbus). Thecommunications network 760 includes the Internet, local intranet,Personal Area Network (PAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network(WAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), virtual private network (VPN),storage area network (SAN), frame relay connection, Advanced IntelligentNetwork (AIN) connection, synchronous optical network (SONET)connection, digital T1, T3, E1 or E3 line, Digital Data Service (DDS)connection, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection, Ethernetconnection, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) line, cablemodem, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) connection, or an FiberDistributed Data Interface (FDDI) or Copper Distributed Data Interface(CDDI) connection. Furthermore, communications network 760 can alsoinclude links to any of a variety of wireless networks includingWireless Application Protocol (WAP), General Packet Radio Service(GPRS), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) or Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), cellularphone networks, Global Positioning System (GPS), cellular digital packetdata (CDPD), Research in Motion, Limited (RIM) duplex paging network,Bluetooth radio, or an IEEE 802.11-based radio frequency network.

While the machine-readable medium 750 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “computer-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “computer-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying a set of instructions for execution bythe machine and that causes the machine to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies of the present application, or that is capable ofstoring, encoding, or carrying data structures utilized by or associatedwith such a set of instructions. The term “computer-readable medium”shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to,solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media. Such media can alsoinclude, without limitation, hard disks, floppy disks, flash memorycards, digital video disks, random access memory (RAM), read only memory(ROM), and the like. Moreover, the phrases “at least one of A and B” or“one or more of A and B” is to be understood as a disjunctive list ofnon-mutually exclusive alternatives (i.e. A or B, or A and B).

The example embodiments described herein can be implemented in anoperating environment comprising computer-executable instructions (e.g.,software) installed on a computer, in hardware, or in a combination ofsoftware and hardware. The computer-executable instructions can bewritten in a computer programming language or can be embodied infirmware logic. If written in a programming language conforming to arecognized standard, such instructions can be executed on a variety ofhardware platforms and for interfaces to a variety of operating systems.Although not limited thereto, computer software programs forimplementing the present method can be written in any number of suitableprogramming languages such as, for example, Hypertext Markup Language(HTML), Dynamic HTML, XML, Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL),Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL), CascadingStyle Sheets (CSS), Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL),Wireless Markup Language (WML), Java™, Jini™, C, C++, C#, .NET, AdobeFlash, Perl, UNIX Shell, Visual Basic or Visual Basic Script, VirtualReality Markup Language (VRML), ColdFusion™ or other compilers,assemblers, interpreters, or other computer languages or platforms.

Thus, the technology for remote networked services providing contextualgame guidance is disclosed. Although embodiments have been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident thatvarious modifications and changes can be made to these exampleembodiments without departing from the broader spirit and scope of thepresent application. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are tobe regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for providingcontextual game guidance, the method comprising: determining, based oncontextual information regarding an application, an objective of a user;determining one or more types of contextual guidance required by theuser based on the user objective; deriving, based on the contextualinformation and the objective, the contextual guidance of the determinedone or more types to assist the user; generating a user interface on aclient device, the user interface having the contextual guidance;detecting an event metadata that indicates that the user has completedthe objective; and transmitting, in response to the detecting, a requestto share a recording of the application including successful completionof the objective.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receivinga user request for guidance from the client device at an entry point orchannel.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the entry point orchannel being at least one of a quick menu, a game hub, a voiceinterface, or other access interface to a remote networked service. 4.The method of claim 3, further comprising the remote networked servicehaving access to a uniform data system, the uniform data systemproviding methodology for game clients and game servers to send data toa platform.
 5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the remotenetworked service having access to the contextual information.
 6. Themethod of claim 3, further comprising the user interface being generatedon the client device by at least one of: the remote networked service,the client device, or a separate server communicatively coupled to theremote networked service and the client device.
 7. The method of claim1, further comprising the contextual information including at least oneof: character or nonplayer character ability; decision at a branch;descriptions of characters, items, or locations; dialogue; estimatedplaytime; entities affected by in-game decisions or actions; inventory;names of characters, items, or places; rewards; status of an objective;telemetry; or virtual coordinates.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the objective including at least one of: finding an item,character, or place to progress to a next checkpoint; solving an in-gamepuzzle or breaking a code; or obtaining tactical knowledge tosuccessfully complete a subsequent objective.
 9. A system comprising: aprocessor; and a memory coupled to the processor and storing a programexecutable by the processor to perform a method for providing contextualguidance comprising: determining, based on contextual informationregarding an application, an objective of a user; determining one ormore types of contextual guidance required by the user based on the userobjective; deriving, based on the contextual information and theobjective, the contextual guidance of the determined one or more typesto assist the user; generating a user interface on a first clientdevice, the user interface having the contextual guidance; detecting anevent metadata that indicates that the user has completed the objective;and transmitting, in response to the detecting, a request to share arecording of the application including successful completion of theobjective.
 10. The system of claim 9, further comprising the programbeing executable to receive a user request for guidance from the firstclient device at an entry point or channel.
 11. The system of claim 10,further comprising the entry point or channel being at least one of aquick menu, game hub, voice interface, or other access interface to aremote networked service.
 12. The system of claim 11, further comprisingthe remote networked service having access to a uniform data system, theuniform data system providing methodology for game clients and gameservers to send data to a platform.
 13. The system of claim 11, furthercomprising the remote networked service having access to the contextualinformation.
 14. The system of claim 11, further comprising the userinterface being generated on the first client device by at least one of:the remote networked service, the first client device, or a separateserver communicatively coupled to the remote networked service and thefirst client device.
 15. The system of claim 14, further comprising theuser interface generated on the first client device being configured tobe displayed over an application window.
 16. The system of claim 14,further comprising the user interface being transmitted, by the remotenetworked service, to a second client device separate from the firstclient device.
 17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumhaving embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by aprocessor to perform a method for providing contextual guidancecomprising: determining, based on contextual information regarding anapplication, an objective of a user; determining one or more types ofcontextual guidance required by the user based on the user objective;deriving, based on the contextual information and the objective, thecontextual guidance of the determined one or more types to assist theuser; generating a user interface on a first client device, the userinterface having the contextual guidance; detecting an event metadatathat indicates that the user has completed the objective; andtransmitting, in response to the detecting, a request to share arecording of the application including successful completion of theobjective.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 17, further comprising the program being executable to receive auser request for guidance from the first client device at an entry pointor channel.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 18, further comprising the entry point or channel being at leastone of a quick menu, a game hub, a voice interface, or other accessinterface to a remote networked service.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising theremote networked service having access to a uniform data system, theuniform data system providing methodology for game clients and gameservers to send data to a platform.
 21. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising theremote networked service having access to the contextual information.22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19,further comprising the user interface being generated on the firstclient device by at least one of: the remote networked service, thefirst client device, or a separate server communicatively coupled to theremote networked service and the first client device.
 23. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, furthercomprising the user interface generated on the first client device beingconfigured to be displayed over an application window.
 24. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, furthercomprising the user interface being transmitted, by the remote networkedservice, to a second client device separate from the first clientdevice.